Aaron Paul in the Driver’s Seat
Tournament Time
The “Need for Speed” star talks about his new role, Arts & Life, page 16.
A look at the upcoming Big East matchups, Sports, page 28.
Volume #98 | Issue #18 | March 10, 2014 | DePauliaonline.com
Five months’ leave
Administration shuffle underway for Aug. 1 By Grant Myatt News Editor
Courtesy of DEPAUL
Fr. Holtschneider speaks to graduating students in 2012.
DePaul University President Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, C.M. will take a five-month academic leave to assume the revolving position of “presidentin-residence” at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education beginning Aug. 1. At Harvard, Holtschneider will team teach a class on leadership and governance in higher education and mentor doctoral students. It also allows time for him to step away from DePaul for a short period to write, something that he doesn’t have time for as president. “The great advantage for me is that it gives me an office and full library privileges at Harvard so that I can write,” he said. Holtschneider received his Ph.D from Harvard and has been
teaching at the school during the summer since 2008. The “president-in-residence” role dedicates an industry practitioner to the program to make sure that what they’re teaching is closely related to practice. Holtschneider said he will be there for just the fall semester because “I can’t leave DePaul for that long.” Current Interim Provost Patricia O’Donoghue will take over as interim president during Holtschneider’s five-month leave of absence. David Miller, dean of the College of Computing and Digital Media, will serve as interim provost in addition to his role as CDM dean. Miller will be the third person to hold the provost position in the past two years. A year-long search committee selected Donald Pope-Davis as DePaul’s new provost who began in July 2013. He resigned Dec.
On the court and in the classroom College applications boosted by athletics
See HOLTSCHNEIDER, page 6
Online classes redefine higher education By Michael Corio & David Webber
By Tom Fowkes
Editor-in-Chief and Sports Editor
Contributing Writer
As anticipation grows to a fever pitch before Selection Sunday for this year’s NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championship tournament, the memory of Florida Gulf Coast University’s stunning back-to-back upsets last year remain fresh in the minds of fans. In only its second year of NCAA eligibility, the No. 15 seed Eagles unexpectedly advanced to the Sweet Sixteen in a now classic underdog story. What’s more, as discussed in a Jan. 8 ESPN article, the university experienced an “unprecedented surge in freshman applications” of 35.4 percent after their team’s widely publicized performance. Meanwhile in Chicago, as success continues to elude most of DePaul’s prominent athletic programs, freshman applications to the university have simultaneously hit a slump of their own. Although nearly all of Chicago’s major universities have experienced an increase in applications for the upcoming year, DePaul was one of only two schools to see less interest from prospective students. Despite the record number of 19,957 applications the university received for 2013-14, a 2.5 percent drop for 201415 was highlighted in a Feb. 25 Crain’s Chicago Business article, along with an even more precipitous decline at the
13, 2013 after only six months in the position and O’Donoghue returned as interim provost. The provost is the chief academic and student affairs officer at the university and reports directly to the president. Holtschneider has held the president position at DePaul for 10 years. For long serving presidents, he said, it is becoming more typical to take at least a half-year sabbatical. On average, a president’s term at a private university typically lasts about five to six years, he said. “It’s just simply not possible for me to dedicate the time to a major research piece that could become a book,” Holtschneider said. “(As president) every day has DePaul activities on it, and I love my job, but after 10 years, it’s nice to do something different for a quarter.”
GRANT MYATT | THE DEPAULIA
Fans cheer the Blue Demons on at a basketball game at Allstate Arena. University of Chicago. According to Northwestern University’s official website, the school received a record 33,200 applications for the upcoming year, and applications have risen by “more than 10,000 since 2007.” Although both the Northwestern men’s football and basketball teams posted losing records that year, they have each had four winning seasons in the following six. Overall, only 507 less students applied to DePaul for this academic year than last, but the decrease nevertheless begs the question as to why the university’s draw for students has dropped while the Chicago area’s has increased. In the past, the cause and effect relationship between athletic prominence
and boosts to the university has been undeniable. During Ray Meyer’s legendary tenure as head coach of DePaul men’s basketball, the university expanded exponentially in acquisitions, enrollment and visibility. In the years 1978-1984, when the Blue Demons had seven straight winning seasons and a trip to the Final Four in the 1978-1979 season, DePaul developed new properties and institutes, and would eventually grow to include nearly 15,000 students by the end of the 1980’s from 11,000 at the end of the previous decade. Now, in the midst of yet another losing season for what is arguably DePaul’s most
See ENROLLMENT, page 26
As universities face budget cuts and rising costs, they are looking for new ways to boost revenue and cut spending. One area that has caught the attention of many administrators and professors is online learning, which has experienced remarkable growth at DePaul over the past several years. By making more classes available online, some universities hope to create a ‘virtual campus’ which can reach beyond a particular community and generate additional income, all without the facility and activity costs associated with a traditional on-campus student. DePaul has expanded its online course offerings over the years, from 150 classes per quarter in 2006 to over 400 in 2012. Online enrollment has increased significantly, from 1,122 in 2006 to 5,751 in spring 2012. Online classes aren’t just gaining popularity among faculty. The fact of the matter is that in this digital age, students are trending toward them as well. An informal poll of 40 DePaul students revealed that, given the choice, online classes would be the preference 60 percent of the time. There are several reasons for this. First, online classes tend to be less of a burden on students.
See ONLINE, page 4